SO on Music Theory Print

Soe Tjen Marching

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Soe Tjen Marching (born April 23, 1971, in Surabaya, Indonesia) is a writer, academician, activist, and a composer of avant-garde music from Indonesia. In 1998, she won the national competition for Indonesian Contemporary Composers held by the German Embassy. Her compositions have been played in New Zealand, Indonesia and Japan. Her work has been released on the CD Asia Piano Avantgarde - Indonesia, played by pianist Steffen Schleiermacher. In 2010, her work has been selected as one of the two best compositions in the International Competition for avant-garde composers held in Singapore. In her musical career, she has been mainly an autodidact. Besides being a composer, Marching is also a creative writer and a senior lecturer teaching Indonesian at SOAS in London. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Canterbury, and she completed her PhD at Monash University in Australia. Her book, The Discrepancy between the Public and the Private Selves of Indonesian Women was published by The Edwin Mellen Press (2007). She has also won several creative writing competitions in Australia and has been published in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. She is married to

Sofía Cancino de Cuevas

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sofía Cancino de Cuevas (July 29, 1897 – December 16, 1982) was a Mexican composer, pianist, opera promoter, singer, and her country’s first woman symphonic conductor. Biography Sofía Cancino de Cuevas was born in Mexico City on July 29, 1897. At age 22 she obtained the title of piano teacher at the Pedro Luis Ogazón Academy. In 1932 she entered the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) School of Music, where she studied singing with Consuelo Escobar de Castro and David Silva, as well as complementary composition courses with Rafael J. Tello, Manuel Ponce and Julián Carrillo. In 1935 the Adagio and the Allegro of her First Symphony premiered at the Simón Bolívar Amphitheater. In the Beethoven room of the Hotel Reforma she presented violinist Jeanne Court and the singers Lorenzo Canno and Alfred Knopf. In successive years she presented complete operas with costumes and set design at private functions as part of her opera dissemination activities. Among them were the 1962 Mexican run of Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri, where she played the main role of Isabella, once again under the baton of Umberto Mugnai. Under her orchestral direction and arrangement, she presented operas

Sofia Gubaidulina

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina (24 October 1931 – 13 March 2025) was a Soviet and Russian composer of modernist sacred music. She was highly prolific, producing numerous chamber, orchestral and choral works. Her output has been described as exploring the tensions between Western and Eastern music, and has been characterised by “innovative use of microtonality and chromaticism, rhythm over form and use of contrasting tonalities. Her compositions have been praised for their “emotional intensity”, while she described her music as bringing legato, that is, a sense of “connected flow into the fragmented staccato of life.” Career Gubaidulina studied composition and piano at the Kazan Conservatory, graduating in 1954. During her early career, Western contemporary music was almost entirely banned from study, an exception being the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. Raids took place in the dormitory halls, where searches were conducted for banned scores, with those by Stravinsky being the most infamous and sought after. Gubaidulina and her peers procured and studied modern Western scores nonetheless, and she later said that “we knew Ives, Cage, we actually knew everything on the sly.” She later s

Sofia Levkovskaya

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sofia Sergeevna Levkovskaya (, 25 November 1965 – 20 June 2011) was a Russian composer. She has worked with several conductors, including Alexander Titov, Fedor Lednev, Anatoly Rybalko, and ; violinists Matvey Lapin and Ilya Ioff, the singer Nadezhda Khadzheva, the flutist Georgy Dolgov, the clarinetist Ilya Gindin, the saxophonist Serafima Verholat, a violinist and composer Artur Zobnin and the pianist Nikolai Mazhara. Levkovskaya has used musical citations in her compositions. Musical critic Alexander Kharkovsky noted the highly theatrical form in her music, the use of catchy slogans as titles of her works, as well as the detailed thoughtfulness of the ideas. References Bibliography * Khazdan, E. V. “Instrumental Theater of Sofia Levkovskaya”, Opera Musicologica. 2012. No 4 (14). pp. 97–114. * Sofia Levkovskaya, KinoPoisk * Levkovskaya, S. S. “Instrumental Theater: visual and sound dictate of the scene”, Musicus. 2008. No. 1 (10). * Levkovskaya, S. S. “Words. Sounds. Movements”, Musicus. 2010. Nos. 1–2 (20–21). * Levkovskaya, S. S.; Kharkovsky A.Z. “Free Electron of Anatoly Korolev”, Musicus. 2009. No. 3 (16). * Levkovskaya, S. S.; Vladimir Martynov “Casus Vita Nova”, Opera Music

Sofie Rohnstock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sofie Rohnstock (25 December 1875 – 26 December 1964) was an Austrian composer who is best remembered for her String Trio in G Major (for violin, viola and cello), apparently the only one of her compositions to survive World War II. Biography Rohnstock was born in Vienna. She studied music at the Leipzig Conservatory (today the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig) with Max Reger and Carl Reinecke. She also made a living as a piano teacher. Unfortunately, her apartment was bombed during World War II, and most of her manuscripts were destroyed, including the piano trio, two symphonies, and quartets for woodwinds and strings. In 1960, Rohnstock wrote Memories of Max Reger, which was published by the Max-Reger-Institute. She died in Leipzig in 1964. String Trio in G Major In 1935, she entered a chamber music competition within the Music Department of the Prussian Academy of Arts (now the Academy of Arts, Berlin). The competition received over 200 entries. In addition to the four main prizes, the committee awarded six additional compositions an unplanned prize of 100 Reichsmarks, of which Rohnstock received for her string trio. She was the only women of the 10 named winners. The str

Sol Berkowitz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sol Berkowitz (27 April 1922 – 29 July 2006) was an American composer and music educator. Life Sol Berkowitz was born in Warren, Ohio, and lived in New York from 1925. He received music degrees from Queens College (CUNY) in 1942 and Columbia University in 1946. He studied piano with Abby Whiteside and composition with Karol Rathaus, Harold Morris and Otto Luening. Berkowitz was a professor at Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College from 1946 until 1999, with a brief hiatus (1961–1967) to pursue a career as a theatre, film and television composer. Known as a teacher of music theory, orchestration, ear training and musicianship, Berkowitz wrote the music textbooks A New Approach to Sight Singing and Improvisation through Keyboard Harmony. Berkowitz composed musicals, ballets, orchestral works, chamber music, and hundreds of choral works and songs. His musical score Nowhere to Go But Up! was produced on Broadway in 1962. Among Berkowitz’s students are jazz pianist Mal Waldron, jazz guitarist Billy Bauer, musicologist Lewis Lockwood and composer Bright Sheng. Selected works ;Stage * Fat Tuesday, Opera (1956) * Miss Emily Adam, Off-Broadway Musical (1960) * Nowhere to Go But Up!

Sol Kaplan

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sol Kaplan (April 19, 1919 – November 14, 1990) was an American film and television music composer. Life and career Kaplan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and he graduated from the Curtis School of Music there. He worked as a successful concert pianist, including performing at Carnegie Hall in 1940 and 1941. In 1941 he composed his first film score. During World War II, Kaplan composed music for the film units of the U.S. Army Signal Corps and the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA. He went on to write music for dozens of films including the 1953 films Titanic and Niagara. His film career was disrupted during the 1950s when he landed on the Hollywood Blacklist after being uncooperative in testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. For Star Trek, Kaplan scored two episodes, “The Enemy Within” and “The Doomsday Machine”. Jeff Bond noted: “Although he wrote only two scores for the series, New York composer Sol Kaplan’s music was tracked frequently throughout the show’s first two seasons”. Appearance before HUAC Sol Kaplan had scored more than 30 Hollywood films between 1940 and 1953. He was subpoenaed by House Committee on Un-American

Solage

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Solage (; or Soulage), possibly Jean , was a French composer, and probably also a poet. He composed the most pieces in the Chantilly Codex, the principal source of music of the ars subtilior, the manneristic compositional school centered on Avignon at the end of the century. Life Nothing is known about Solage’s life, beyond what can be inferred from the texts to his music. Even his name is a puzzle. One possibility is that the single name “Solage” is a nickname or pseudonym, similar to others known from the period, such as Grimace or Hasprois. “Solage” and “soulage” are variant spellings of Old French solaz, solace, meaning “consolation”, “joy”, or “entertainment”. In the refrain to the text of Calextone qui fut dame, the composer refers to himself with such a double meaning, using the spelling “soulage”. However, the possibility that it is a genuine name cannot be ruled out. One of the attributions in the Chantilly Codex includes the initial J wrapped into the name, so it is possible his first name was . There are many references from that time to people called Jean Soulas (a name still found in modern times), and the surname Soulage or Soulages also existed (for example, Guillaum

Solange Ancona

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Solange Ancona (born 14 August 1943 in Paris – November 29, 2019) was a French composer. Biography Ancona studied at the Conservatoire national supérieur de Paris under Olivier Messiaen and Giacinto Scelsi. She resided at the Villa Medici between 1973 and 1975. After completing her studies, Ancona took a position teaching musical analysis and composition at the Conservatoire Régional de Versailles, where she remained for over thirty years. Noted students include French composer François Paris, cellist Florian Lauridon and French composer and pianist Benoît Delbecq. Personal life and death Ancona died on November 29, 2019. Following her death, Ancona’s neighbors rallied together to preserve her invaluable archives, particularly her musical scores. Their efforts were successful, and in 2021, her archives were relocated to the Hector Berlioz Museum media library, ensuring the preservation and accessibility of her musical works. Works Selected works include: * Slantze III for soprano and orchestra (text by Dante) * Thama for solo cello (created by Florian Lauridon) * Resonanz classical guitar 10-string (created by Sebastian Vaumoron) * Aïvantcha musical theater (text by Dante) * Fidéli

Solhi al-Wadi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Solhi al-Wadi (, ) (1934–2007) was an Iraqi-born musician, conductor, composer, educator and director, who lived most of his life in Damascus, Syria. Life Solhi al-Wadi was born in Baghdad on 12 February 1934 to an Iraqi father and a Jordanian mother, who moved to live in Damascus, Syria, when he was a child. He went to Victoria College, a British boarding school in Alexandria, Egypt, where he studied violin and composition at the local conservatory. In 1953 he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music in London to pursue higher studies in music. In 1960, after graduating, Solhi al-Wadi returned to Damascus and began work on establishing serious music as part of the fine arts scene in Syria. In 1962 he founded the Arab Institute of Music and was appointed its director. He established relations with several foreign countries, especially the former Soviet Union, to be able to bring qualified teachers in all disciplines and instruments, to teach Syrian youngsters, who were interested in learning music. In 2004 the Arab Institute of Music was renamed the Solhi al-Wadi Institute of Music. In 1990, after years of negotiating with the Syrian Ministry of Culture and other necessary instan

Solomon Eccles

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Solomon Eccles (1618–1683), also known as Solomon Eagle, was an English composer. However, he later became an active Quaker and distanced himself from church music. Life Solomon Eagle was mentioned in Daniel Defoe’s semi-fictional account of the plague of 1665 titled A Journal of the Plague Year: I suppose the world has heard of the famous Solomon Eagle, an enthusiast. He, though not infected at all but in his head, went about denouncing of judgment upon the city in a frightful manner, sometimes quite naked, and with a pan of burning charcoal on his head. What he said, or pretended, indeed I could not learn. This event is corroborated in the 29 July 1667 entry of the Diary of Samuel Pepys (vol 13). Pepys confirms that the person described as such is a Quaker: …a man, a Quaker, came naked through the Westminster Hall, only very civilly tied about the privates to avoid scandal, and with a chafing-dish of fire and brimstone burning upon his head… crying, “Repent! repent!” Eccles as a Quaker was prosecuted numerous times during the Restoration for civil disobedience. He would worship with other Quakers, although the Conventicle Act 1664 declared that this was a dangerous and sediti

Solon Michaelides

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Solon Michaelides (12 November 190510 September 1979) was a Cypriot Greek composer, teacher and musicologist. He taught himself the guitar as a schoolkid. He was appointed guitar teacher in the Cypriot Conservatory, where he learned piano. He studied in the UK and France. After his studies he spend the next two decades in Limassol. He created a choir that survives today as Aris choir, with which he presented opera (Dido and Aeneas) and oratorio classics as well as choral works. He was a music teacher at Laniteio Lyceum. He moved to Salonika in the 1950s, where he continued teaching and created a symphony orchestra that was nationalised in the 1960s and is still active today. He wrote extensively, including books on the harmony of modern music, Cypriot music, modern Greek music and his Encyclopaedia of Ancient Greek Music. He composed several works for choir, orchestra and solo such as the archaic suite, Eleftheria etc. His archive was left to the municipality of Limassol where he spent his most creative years. There is a dedicated museum-archive building housing the archive next to the municipal conservatoire. Works by Michaelides have been recorded by Greek symphony orchestras. Th

Solveig Sørbø

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Solveig Sørbø (born 1986) is a Norwegian composer, music producer, performing artist and former librarian and radio journalist. Music Solveig Sørbø scored the music for the 2021 documentary film Hans pluss Liv by Mari Bakke Riise. Her piece Love Theme is inspired by the story and has been released in several versions including ones featuring Catharina Chen and Ayumi Tanaka. In january 2024 The Norwegian Radio Orchestra performed the piece orchestrated by Henrik Skram during Meloditimen in NRK’s Grand Studio. Sørbø also writes chamber music and opera. Fragments from her opera Heroin Chic which she wrote with author and librettist Maria Kjos Fonn was performed in the Fartein Valen hall of Stavanger konserthus in 2022, and in 2024 as part of the four hundredth anniversary of the . The full-length world premiere took place as an opera in concert in Iași on 25 February 2025 to much critical acclaim with Susanna Wolff and Sofia Neacșu in the main roles as the adult and child “Elise” respectively. Sørbø has also released popular music with her band Pysj. Academic work As a librarian at University of Oslo Library Sørbø coinitiated the research concept MusicLab together with professor of mu

Somei Satoh

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

is a Japanese composer of contemporary music. Style Satoh’s compositions mix Japanese court music with European romanticism and electronic music. Career His musical career began with an experimental, mix media group called “Tone Field” in Tokyo. He studied at Nihon University of Art in the early 1970s and is primarily self-taught in composition. In 1972 and 1981, Satoh produced two other experimental projects. The latter involved placing eight speakers approximately one kilometer apart on nearby mountain tops overlooking a huge valley. In 1985, he collaborated with theater designer Manuel Luetgenhorst to stage his music at The Arts at St. Ann’s in Brooklyn, New York. He wrote his violin concerto for Anne Akiko Meyers. Compositions ;Orchestra * Sumeru (1982) * Homa (1988) * Ruika (1990) * Toward the Night (1991) * Glimmering Darkness (1995) * Kami no Miuri (1995) * Burning Meditation (1995) * Listening to Fragrances of the Dusk (1997) * Firefly Garden (1998) * Kisetsu (1999) * From the Depth of Silence (2000) * Kyokoku (2000) * Violin Concerto (2002) ;Vocal music * Stabat Mater (1987) ;Works using Japanese musical instruments * Chinmoku (Silence) (1977) * Kaze no Kyoku (Music of the

Song Kwang-sik

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Song Kwang-sik (born March 22, 1966) is a South Korean pianist, working both as a recording and studio artist signed under the label of SM Entertainment. He has released two solo albums and have worked in several collaboration albums by SM Town, many soundtracks, scores and musicals. History 1987–1999: Early works Song’s first broadcast appearance was in 1987 at KBS through 1st College Idol Festival where he performed the song “추억한잎”. He then performed “노래하는 인형” on MBC through Riverside Song Festival in 1991 and later performed “광화문에서 너의 마음까지” on SBS through 1st Music Festival: New Generation of Idols in 1992. Song performed the song “이별 96” (Goodbye ‘96) in MBC Riverside Song Festival in 1996 and also received a special award. Song once again appeared on MBC Riverside Song Festival performing “널 사랑한단 말로” in 1999. In 1999, he helped in house sessions and album productions for the popular idol groups H.O.T. and S.E.S. 2000–2002: Breakthrough and solo albums On December 1, 2000, Song released his first solo album as a pianist entitled My Story under the label S.M. Entertainment. The album contained 15 tracks. He also participated in music composition, planning and production of colla

Songs of Emmanuel Chabrier

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The French composer Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–94) wrote music in many genres, including opera and operetta, piano, orchestral music, and songs with piano accompaniment. The songs of Chabrier cover most of his creative years, from the early 1860s to 1890, when the illness which would kill him prevented much composition. He came late to music as a profession, but – although being an exceptional pianist – he had no trappings of a formal training: no conservatoire studies, no Prix de Rome, “none of the conventional badges of French academic musicians, by whom he was regarded as an amateur” (in the best sense). There are forty-three published songs by Chabrier. He began composing these mélodies when he was about twenty-one; the first nine were written between 1862 and 1866. Chabrier never set any verse by his friend Verlaine (although they did collaborate on two opéras-bouffes Fisch-Ton-Kan and Vaucochard et fils Ier), but among the better-known poets whose verse Chabrier did set in these early songs were Théodore de Banville (“Lied”) and Alfred de Musset (“Adieux à Suzon”). Chabrier gave up his job at the Ministry of the Interior in 1880; as a full-time composer he set texts by Victor Hu

Songwriter

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A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in classical music and film and video game scoring. A songwriter who mainly writes the lyrics for a song is referred to as a lyricist. Pressure from the music industry to produce popular hits means that commercial songwriting is often a collaborative process with tasks shared among multiple people. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules. Skills associated with songwriting include entrepreneurism and creativity. Certain contractual scenarios result in staff writers and songwriters not receiving a public credit for their contributions to a song, similar to a ghostwriter in literary publishing. Staff writers Songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. Being a staff writer effectively means that, during the term of the songwriter’s contract with the publisher, all their songs are automatically published by that company and cannot be published elsewhere. The publisher owns the copyright

Sonia Bo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sonia Bo (born 27 March 1960) is an Italian pianist, conductor and composer. Her works have been performed at a number of festivals, including She has won a number of awards, including first prizes in the Guido d’Arezzo Composers Competition, the composition competition of the European Cultural Foundation, the composition competition G. Savagnone in Rome, and the international composition competition Alpe Adria Giovani in Trieste. She was awarded the Friuli Prize and the Ennio Porrino Prize in 1985, and has also won the Franco Evangelisti Prize, and the Valentino Bucchi Prize. Life Sonia Bo was born in Lecco, Italy, on 27 March 1960, She composes for orchestra, chamber ensemble, choir, voice, piano and organ as well as electroacoustic music. She has won a number of awards and prizes, and her works are performed internationally in Asia, Europe and North America, including at festivals, such as Festival Focus in New York, the Musica Nova in Sofia, Traiettorie sonore in Como, Nuova consonanza and Nuovi Spazi Musicali in Rome, Antidogma in Turin and the Venice Biennale. Honors and awards *First prize, Guido d’Arezzo Composers Competition (1985) *First prize, composition competition of

Sonia Paço-Rocchia

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sonia Paço-Rocchia (/so.ˈnja ˈpa.so ˈrɔ.kja/), born in 1982 in Montreal, is a composer, multidisciplinary artist, improviser, bassoonist and creative coder. Biography After graduating in mixed music composition from the Université de Montréal in 2005, she began her career in Europe, where she was based mainly in London. She later moved to the Laurentides region England In 2019, she became the first woman to receive the in the “Creation of the Year” category. Sonia Paço-Rocchia’s approach focuses on sounds, timbres and open musical forms. Her research includes the exploitation and expansion of the sound palettes of instruments through playing techniques or live electronics, inventing her own instruments and instrument automatons. Her pieces frequently involve a visual or theatrical aspect. Sonia Paço-Rocchia is bassoonist-improviser with the . She regularly improvises with chamber ensembles, such as The Fantastique Quintet, VibraLib and ZzCc or as a soloist. Work Compositions * Justine et les machines, opera on a libretto by Marie-Ève Bouchard, commissioned by the 3 FEMMES prize by Mécénat Musica (2021-2022) a Stemsaw * Ode au métal is a work for saxophone quartet performing inside

Sonya Belousova

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sonya Belousova (born February 4, 1990) is a Russian-American composer, music producer, songwriter, and artist whose viral hit Toss A Coin To Your Witcher reached #1 on the Billboard charts. Based in Los Angeles, California, Belousova has composed music for some of the most commercially successful television franchises, including One Piece and The Witcher. Belousova composed the score and songs for Netflix’s live-action adaptation of One Piece, which became a global hit. The soundtrack features the song My Sails Are Set, written and produced by Belousova and her scoring partner Giona Ostinelli, and performed by Aurora. The song has garnered over 20 million streams on Spotify, contributing to the album’s overall success with more than 300 million streams worldwide. Polygon praised the “devilish duo” for their “freewheeling” score, which “swings from symphonic blockbuster cues to hip-hop licks to virtuosic flamenco guitar, jazz funk, big-band brass, and head-spinning circus music.” ScreenRant lauded the soundtrack for its “next-level musical worldbuilding” and “unique character themes and instruments complementing each other perfectly.” Belousova gained widespread recognition for her

Sophia Dashing

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sophia Dashing is an American pop singer-songwriter and dancer from Atlanta, Georgia known for her advocacy for the feminist movement and the LGBTQ community. Career In 2021, Dashing released her debut single “High Priestess,” which she described as a self-discovery, self-love song anthem. Following her debut release, she released more singles, including “Way I”, which accumulated over 220,000 streams and was described as a “made to set the mood for couples to express their love for each other”, and “Still In Love,” which was described as a soulful ballad by The Garnette Report. In 2022, she was nominated as the Best Singer-Songwriter by Jezebel Magazine and won. In the same year, she also performed at the Atlanta Pride Festival, which she appeared alongside artists such as Flo Rida, Betty Who, Big Freedia, jax, Brooke Eden, Neriah and Chrissy Chlapecka. She performed at the Festival on Saturday October 8 She was also supposed to perform in the Atlanta Pride Festival in 2021, but didn’t, for unknown reasons. Personal life Sophia Dashing was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. In an interview with Naluda Magazine, she also explained how important it is for her to advocate for the f

Sophia Dussek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sophia Giustina Dussek (née Corri; later Moralt; 1 May 1775 in Edinburgh – c. 1831 in London) was a Scottish singer, pianist, harpist, and composer of Italian descent. In 1792, Dussek married the composer Jan Ladislav Dussek. Following Jan’s death in 1812, Sophia married the violist John Alvis Moralt. The couple lived in Paddington, where she founded a music school . The opus 2 sonatas were published in at least 3 editions in the 1790s by the Corri-Dussek company in London as by Madame Dussek, and there is no reason to doubt that the 6 sonatas of opus 2, including the famous C minor sonata published and misattributed by Schott as by JL, are anything but the work of Sophia. Paris editions of opus 2 published by Pleyel only bear the name Dussek, leading Zabaleta to his misattribution, but nobody actually claimed opus 2 as the work of JL rather than Dussek before the mid-20th century. Life and family Sophia Dussek was born into the Corri family. She studied voice with her father, composer, music publisher, and impresario Domenico CorriHer uncle was composer Natale Corri and her cousin was soprano Fanny Corri-Paltoni. Her father provided Sophia with vocal instruction and had her perfor

Sophia Maria Westenholz

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Sophia Maria Westenholz (née Elenore Sophia Maria Fritscher; 10 July 1759 - 4 October 1838) was a German composer, musician, singer and music educator. Born in Neubrandenburg, she was raised in a privileged family and spent most of her life in the courts of Schwerin and Ludwigslust, capitals of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. At the behest of Duke Ludwig, she studied piano and singing with Konzertmeister Johann Wilhelm Hertel in Schwerin beginning at age ten. By the time she was sixteen, she was employed as a singer in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court chapel at Ludwigslust. She became the second wife of the Kapellmeister Carl August Friedrich Westenholz in the summer of 1777; they had eight children together. By the 1780s, Westenholz received great acclaim in Berlin, Leipzig, Ludwigslust and Rostock, amassing a following including composer Ernst Wilhelm Wolf and Carl Friedrich Cramer. Wolf is quoted as saying “Mrs. Westenholz’s manner is that of the great Bach in Hamburg.” In a review of his six sonatas, which Wolf had dedicated to Sophie Westenholz, Cramer also praised the balance in the musical expression of her playing. When Carl Westenholz died in 1789, Sophia received the tit

Sophie Bawr

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Baroness Sophie de Bawr (8 October 1773 – 31 December 1860), born Alexandrine-Sophie Goury de Champgrand, was a French writer, playwright and composer, also known as “Comtesse de Saint-Simon”, “Baronne de Bawr”, and “M. François”. Life She was born in Paris, the illegitimate daughter of Marquis Charles-Jean de Champgrand and opera singer Madeline-Virginie Vian. Her godmother was Madeleine-Sophie Arnould. She was raised by her father, and studied music with André Grétry, Nicolas Roze and Adrien Boieldieu and singing with Pierre Garat and Jean Elleviou. She secretly married a young aristocrat, Jules de Rohan-Rochefort, during the Terror who was executed soon after on the scaffold. Her son from this marriage died in infancy in 1797. After surviving the French Revolution, she supported herself by writing books, music and plays. In 1801 she married Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon. After a divorce, she married the Baltic German Baron de Bawr who died in an accident, leaving her again without financial support. However, she eventually received a pension from the French government. Her Suite d’un bal masqué was highly successful and received 246 performances between 1813 and 1869. She died in

Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté

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Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté (; in Moscow, Russia – 2 December 1974 in Stuttgart, Germany) was a Russian-born Canadian composer, virtuoso pianist, and violinist. Biography Early life She was born as Sofia (Sonia) Fri e dman-Kochevskaya in Moscow, where her mother worked as a governess in the Tolstoy household. She began to learn piano in 1904 and wrote her first piano compositions in 1905. She studied at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1908 to 1913, where her teachers included Alfred Brun and Guillaume Rémy for violin, S. Chenée for piano, and Vincent d’Indy and Camille Chevillard for composition. She made her début in 1910, and her first composition, an Etude de Concert, was published in Paris that year. She moved to Berlin in 1914, where she studied violin with Bronisław Huberman; by 1919 she had undertaken several concert tours of Western Europe, on which she performed her own works. Career In 1920, she married the painter Walter Gramatté in Berlin, and from 1924 to 1926 lived in Spain, where Pablo Casals was her mentor. During this time she wrote her first piano concerto. She toured with Edwin Fischer in Germany in 1925. Following her husband’s death in 1929, she toured the

Sophie Dedekam

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sophie Dedekam (1 April 18201 June 1894) was a Norwegian composer and diarist, one of the most significant Norwegian women composers of the 19th century, and principally remembered today for a hymn included in the Church of Norway Hymn Book and for her published recollections of a visit to Paris. Dedekam was born in the Norwegian coastal town of Arendal, the daughter of the town’s mayor. She became active in the social and cultural life of the city at an early age, where she sang and played the piano. She traveled to Paris when she was 25 for a visit of several weeks, recording her experiences in letters and in a diary that were published after she died. Dedekam did some public concertizing as a singer and collaborative pianist early in her life, but most of her performing was limited to amateur venues in the Arendal area or at home with her family and friends. Dedekam also composed songs from an early age, again mostly for local consumption. Many of her pieces were eventually published by Wilhelm Hansen Music Publishers (known today as Edition Wilhelm Hansen) in Copenhagen. A number of her songs became quite well known in Norway as a result, but Sophie rarely received recognition

Sophie Gail

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Edmee Sophie Gail née Garre (28 August 1775 – 24 July 1819) was a French singer and composer, famous for writing romances (a French song genre) and opéra comique. Life Sophie Garre was born in Paris in the parish of Saint Sulpice, the daughter of Marie-Louise Adelaide Colloz and surgeon Claude-Francois Garre (1730–1799). She studied piano as a child and published her first composition, a romance, at the age of 14. At the age of 19, she married editor Jean-Baptiste Gail (1755–1829) and had one son, Jean François Gail. She and her husband divorced in 1801, and Sophie Garre toured as a singer in Europe. She studied with Fétis, Perne and Sigismund Neukomm and wrote an opera comique as her first work for theater. Her compositions were praised by the critique Castil-Blaze as “the best works in this genre that flowed from the pen of a woman”. Her works were very popular during her lifetime, with her two most popular operas accruing more than 250 performances. Works Selected works include: *1797, Deus airs for the drama Montoni *1813, Les deux jaloux, opéra comique in 1 act *1814, Il est vrai que Thibaut mérite, romance *1853, Ma Fanchette est charmante, trio *1813, Mademoiselle de Launay

Sophie Lacaze

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sophie Lacaze (born 9 September 1963) is a French composer. Life Lacaze was born in Lourdes. She studied music at the Conservatoire de Toulouse, and continued at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, where she received the Composition Prize. Afterwards, she studied with Allain Gaussin, Philippe Manoury and Antoine Tisné in France, and with Franco Donatoni and Ennio Morricone in Italy. She also engaged in music theatre with Georges Aperghis at the Centre Acanthes, and attended Pierre Boulez’s courses in Collège de France. In 2002, she was invited for a residency at the Electronic Music Unit of the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide (Australia). After having travelled in several countries, especially in Australia and Belgium, she came back to France in 2006. In 2009, she was the first woman to receive the Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs (France), and in 2010, the SACEM gave her the Claude Arrieu Prize for her body of work. In 2012, she was a laureate of the Beaumarchais-SACD association. In 2023, Lacaze won the ‘100 femmes de culture’ award, which aims to highlight the inspiring and creative voices of French-speaking women in the arts. Her compositions, which r

Sophie Viney

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sophie Viney (born 1974) is an English composer and arranger. Her compositions have been performed at significant venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and St. Martin-in-the-Fields and her music has featured in the Spitalfields Festival and the Brighton Festival. In February 1999, Viney received critical acclaim in The Times for her work Music of the Spheres which was described as “eerily conjured”. Her choral work Missing God was commissioned under the Society for the Promotion of New Music’s Adopt a Composer programme and performed by the London Oriana Choir in 2003. She has written for the Philharmonia and has also written for theatre groups such as Watford Palace Theatre, and Barbican Studio Theatre. Her music is influenced by phenomena ranging from the wedding chant of Masai warriors to passages from scripture. Biography Viney began composing around the age of 7 or 8 and in the years that followed, developed her craft to the extent that she gained entry to the Royal College of Music studying composition with Jeremy Dale Roberts and Simon Bainbridge. she also studied piano and conducting. * Detective Theme * Sonatina in 7 & 5 Arrangements * Ting-a-ling (Reprise)

Sören Sieg

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sören Sieg (born 1 November 1966) is a German tenor, songwriter, composer, arranger, satirist, columnist and writer. He is a co-founder of the a cappella group , in which he sang as a tenor and hosted the performances from 1994 to 2012. From 2009 to 2013, he regularly wrote a front page column for the Bremer Newspaper. In the meantime, he works mainly as a freelance writer and composer. Life Childhood, school and youth years, political studies Born in Elmshorn, Sieg is a son of the teacher, writer and satirist (1936–2015) and also comes from a family of musicians. His mother Elisabeth Sieg, who later worked as a psychological psychotherapist, taught recorder at the Staatliche Jugendmusikschule Hamburg; his grandfather Heinrich Paff conducted a chamber orchestra. He grew up together with his older siblings Katrin (now a theatre scholar at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.) and Sönke (now musical director on a cruise ship of the Hamburg shipping company TUI Cruises) in Elmshorn. Sieg learned languages at an early age, started school at the age of five, skipped a grade as a highly gifted child and graduated from Elmshorn High School as a 17-year-old in 1984 in the Elsa Brändströ

Sorrel Hays

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sorrel Hays (August 6, 1941 – February 9, 2020) was an American pianist, composer, filmmaker and artist. Life Hays was born Doris Ernestine Hays in Memphis, Tennessee, and in 1985 adopted her grandmother’s family name of Sorrel. She studied music with Harold Cadek at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, graduating in 1963. She continued her education for three years studying with Friedrich Wührer and Hedwig Bilgram at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, Germany. She then studied with Paul Badura-Skoda and Rudolf Kolisch at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, graduating with a Master of Music degree. After completing her studies, Hays taught at Cornell College in Iowa, and then moved to New York City where she studied with pianist Hilde Somer. In 1971 she won first prize in the Gaudeamus Competition for Interpreters of New Music at Rotterdam, and began an international career as a pianist. She is now known as one of the world’s foremost performers of cluster piano music. She also collaborated with İlhan Mimaroğlu. In 1998 Hays was director of a graduate program in electronic music at Yildiz University, Istanbul. She also taught as a guest lecturer at colleges and universi

Soundpainting

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Soundpainting is a universal multi-disciplinary live-composing sign language for every kind of artist (musicians, actors, dancers, visual artists), and is still evolving since its creation in 1974 by Walter Thompson in Woodstock, New York. Soundpainting gives to the soundpainter (the composer) the possibility to compose multi-disciplinary creations in real time by signing gestures (more than 1500 different signs in 2023) to indicate the material the performers will realize and the soundpainter will shape into the composition. History Short overview of sign languages in the history of composition Beginning in the middle of the 20th century there were several musicians who invented and used some form of sign language to compose in the moment. Some notable ones were Earle Brown, Sun Ra, Frank Zappa, Alan Silva and Butch Morris. In the early 1950s, American composer Earle Brown wrote December 1952. Inspired by the work of Jackson Pollock, he proposed a new way of writing and composing music, using open-form ways of composing. For instance, in Calder Piece (first performed at the Théâtre de l’Atelier in Paris in 1966), he used a mobile from Alexander Calder that he would call a “chef d'